TRISKELL TALES 2

by Charles de Lint

1-59606-055-7

178pp/$24.95/November 2006

Each year at Christmas, Charles de Lint publishes a
chapbook for distribution to close friends. In 2003, Subterranean Press collected twenty-two of these stories
in Triskell Tales. De Lint continued the tradition, and in 2005 Subterranean
collected an additional seven chapbooks in Triskell Tales 2. Although sent out as Christmas gifts, these
stories are not Christmas themed, but rather stories which de Lint could
just as easily have had published in any of the magazines or anthologies
clamoring for his work.

In 2007, de Lint published the novel Little Grrl Lost, about Elizabeth, a
"little" and T.J., the girl who befriends her. In the novel, T.J. sets off to find local author Shari Piper, who
has written novels about the littles and who might be able to provide
her with additional information about Elizabethís people. "Big City
Littles" is Shari Piperís story, not the one she wrote, but rather
the tale of her meeting with the Littles about whom she wrote.

In "Refinerytown," de Lint turns his attention
to the creative process as Mona works on a comic strip, in collaboration
for the first time. In the
process, Mona discovers the difficulties of working with someone else
who may have different views of the manner in which the project
progresses. Her discussions
with Jilly about her difficulties, both with her collaborator and the
material, lead her to look at collaboration in a whole new light, not
just with regard to the comic strip, but also with regard to her life in
general and her budding romance with Lyle the shapechanger.

De Lint includes a collaboration of his own with
"A Crow Girls' Christmas," written with his wife, MaryAnn Harris. The
Crow Girls, Zia and Maida, are recurring characters in de Lintís
Newford cycle and completely personify the idea that girls just want to
have fun. Focusing on their primary goal (which revolves around
candy canes), the crow girls get jobs working as elves for the local
mallís Santa in what is essentially a lark, both for the girls and the
readers.

"Sweet
Forget-Me-Not" tells the story of a young Lebanese boy attempting to
fit into Western culture in a post-9/11 world. Not only is Ahmad Nasrallah an Arab, and therefore suspect to his
schoolmates, but he is also a self-proclaimed nerd, which only serves to
increase his status as an outcast and a target. While ditching school one day, he found the gemmin, a fairy
race that helped him come to terms with his situation and also serve as
a personification of Ahmadís initiation into puberty. Although
initially the gemmin help fight Ahmad's battles for him, in the end,
they teach him a level of self reliance and the ability to stand up when
he needs to.

Charles de Lint reveals that Newford suffered a
major earthquake in the past, resulted in an underground city in "Da Slocklit
Light." Of course, this is exactly the sort of place that the
dispossessed would gravitate towards and when word reaches Meran Kelledy
and her husband Cerin of the disappearances, they vow to do something
about it. Cerin and Lucius Portsmouth descend into the underground
city, only to become numbered with the disappeared, leaving Meran to
find someone else to go underground. She settles on Louie Felden,
a young pickpocket, who she met when he tried to steal her purse.
Felden agrees to go down for a price, and in the process provides an
interesting, and nuanced view of the idea that there are good spirits
and evil ones, a view which occurs frequently not only in fantasy in
general, but also in de Lint's own works. Felden is an excellent
counterbalance to the prevailing voices of Jilly Coppercorn and the de
Lint's more typical characters.

"The World in a Box" is exactly what its title
suggests. De Lint's protagonist and narrator finds a nineteenth
century hand-made box at an antique show. When he looks inside it,
he finds a small globe floating, which he quickly discovers only he can
see. Remembering a story once told to him by a friend, he makes a
couple of wishes. When they begin actually change the world around
him, he realizes that no matter what he wishes for, even if it seems
beneficial, will summon the law of unexpected consequences and what is
good for one person may not be good for others. Having come to
that conclusion, he finds himself in something of a dilemma as to how to
proceed with the box. De Lint has an interesting premise, although
it seems that this one could have been stretched out to explore in
greater depth. At the length the story is, is seems a little
slight.

Triskell Tales 2 ends with "This
Moment," about a young man with the ability to see the various
spirits, goblins, and creatures who move through Newford, invisible to
all the normal citizens of the city. Long having come to terms
with his strange ability, he merely tries to take photographs of what he
sees, only to have the pictures appear perfectly mundane when he
downloads them from his camera. When Josie, a customer at his
coffee shop notices him staring out the window at one of the creatures,
he opens up to her, hoping that he can help her see what he sees, and
perhaps also come up with a usefulness to his strange ability.
Although one character speculates that things don't necessarily happen
for a reason, the quest for a purpose to the ability to see the
creatures continues and eventually implies that there is a pattern, even
if it is merely inflicted by the humans who seek it.

Triskell
Tales 2 is in many ways a gift from de Lint to his readers.
Made up of stories which have mostly only been available to de Lint's
selected friends (with the exception of "A Crow Girls' Christmas,
which was published on-line), Triskell Tales 2 marks the first
general appearance of these stories which add to the breadth and depth
of de Lint's Newford cycle. His decision to share them with a
wider audience than originally planned provides a wonderful addition to
any collection of de Lint's works..